MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT EMAIL MARKETING
Never Use the Word "Free" - Perhaps the most common misconception in email marketing is that you should "never use the word free." By itself, the word free will not cause any of the major spam or content filters to reject your email. (Though it is possible that some corporations or user-driven spam filters might be set to delete emails containing the word "free") So why then would you risk using free when there is a chance, albeit small, your email might be filtered? Quite simply, better results. In our experience across various clients, when used correctly, the word free can provide a powerful boost to your results.
Not convinced? Ok, let's look at two popular spam content filters to see how they actually work and treat your freeladen emails.
Spam Assassin - Spam Assassin is one of the leading "test-based" spam filters and many of the large ISPs model their own filters after Spam Assassin's test algorithm. The Spam Assassin filter assigns points - positive and negative - to the content and coding of an email. An email is run through the filter and is assigned positive points (in this case positive means potential spam) and negative points (content and coding believed not generally used by spammers). (A legitimate email that is filtered as a result of these positive scores is referred to as a "false-positive.")
The score is totaled and if it exceeds a certain level it is filtered. Users of Spam Assassin can change the test score values and determine the level at which emails are filtered. It is generally believed that most companies/ISPs use a total score of around 10, but that some may go as low as 4.
So, what does this mean when using free? Review the Spam Assassin list and you will see that a number of phrases that use free do receive fairly high scores of 1 and higher. But phrases commonly used by legitimate marketers such as "free shipping," "free e-book" and "free white paper" are not affected.
Microsoft Outlook 2000 Junk E-mail Filter - Outlook 2000 contains a default Junk filter that looks for certain "junk and adult" content - that when triggered automatically routes the email to your Outlook's Deleted Items folder. (Read more about Outlook 2003's spam filter technology here.) This filter must be turned on and as a result it is unclear how many Outlook users have activated this function. But unlike the test score-based filters, Outlook uses a pass/fail method. (View the content filtered by Outlook.) This filter addresses a few uses of free, but the most common usage that triggers the filter is the use of an exclamation point and free in your subject line.
Your Take Away - Yes, you should be careful when using free in your email communications - but when used correctly and strategically, you will generally see greater results than by not using this powerful word. The bottom line test, test, test.
Don't Send Emails on Weekends - In general, distributing your emails on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday is a good rule of thumb.
So why would you ever send an email on the weekend, or even Monday or Friday? Putting aside breaking news, announcements, daily newsletters and the like, weekends can be the best time to motivate readers or customers to take a specific action.